Births, Sickness And Death - Dependant Care Leave Explained

Many employees will have requested, at some point, time off to deal with a poorly child, an injured partner or a parent who needs their help.

Many employees will have requested, at some point, time off to deal with a poorly child, an injured partner or a parent who needs their help.

What are their rights in respect of this?

Legislation provides that employees are entitled to take reasonable, unpaid time off to care for dependants in order to take action which is necessary:

to provide assistance when a dependant falls ill, gives birth or is injured or assaulted;

to make arrangements for the provision of care for a dependant who is ill or injured;

in consequence of the death of a dependant;

because of the unexpected disruption or termination of arrangements for the care of a dependant; or

to deal with an incident which involves a child of the employee and which occurs unexpectedly during the time the child is usually at school.

Further, “unexpected” does not mean sudden. So, an employee who has advance notice of the disruption may still be able to take time off, although the more notice the employee has, the harder it will be for them to establish that the time off was necessary.

Who are dependants?

Dependants include:

employee (but not as an employee, tenant, lodger or boarder).

What should your employee do?

They must tell you the reason for their absence as soon as reasonably practicable and for how long they expect to be absent.

How much time can they take off?

The legislation is aimed at allowing employees to deal with the initial situation, rather than entitling them to time off to provide the care themselves. Depending on the circumstances, one or two days is likely to be considered reasonable.

It is usually beneficial to have a policy covering this entitlement so that expectations are managed from the outset and confusion avoided.

Claire Rolston is a Solicitor/Director at CLR Law. Contact her with any queries on employment law matters on 0191 6030061 or hello@clrlaw.co.uk